Testimony of Betrayal and Kisses At Army Drill Sergeant's Hearing

By DON TERRY

Published: November 14, 1996

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo., Nov. 13—
Lonely and far from home, Joy Paulsen was a scared 21-year-old Army recruit last spring when a drill sergeant asked her up to his room for a smoke and some talk.

As she testified today in a military courtroom here packed with reporters and soldiers, she was having a rough time. She had broken her pelvis four weeks into training and was desperate for a friendly face. And even if she wasn't, she said, how could she say no? From the minute she hit this sprawling post, she and the other recruits were told the gospel according to the Army: The drill sergeants were ''in absolute control.''

The next thing she knew, the sergeant, Loren B. Taylor, was kissing her. Yes, she kissed him back, but she was scared and ''very vulnerable.'' He was her sergeant. But when he tried to put ''me on the ground'' the young soldier resisted, she said.

Ms. Paulsen's testimony came at the sentencing of Sergeant Taylor, who pleaded guilty on Tuesday to charges of having consensual sex with three recruits in his training company, and of trying to have sex with two others, including Ms. Paulsen.

Military regulations prohibit most initimate relationships between officers and enlisted personnel and between supervisors and subordinates.

The judge today sentenced him to five months in military prison, with a bad-conduct discharge, ending an 11-year military career that began when he joined the Army as a 17-year-old high-school dropout. He is the first recruit instructor to fall in what is a growing investigation of sexual abuse and harassment of Army recruits.

And in a sign that the scandal is widening further, the Navy and Air Force were ordered today to search their ranks for evidence of sexual abuse. Army Secretary Togo West, Navy Secretary John Dalton and Air Force Secretary Sheila Widnall are each to report on how their commanders have ''communicated resolve not to tolerate sexual harassment or unprofessional relationships at any level of command,'' the Pentagon said in a prepared statement.

Here at the military court, Ms. Paulsen testified that as the Sergeant tried to make her lay down, she pushed him away and he let her go.

''I was so confused about the whole thing,'' she said, fighting back tears. ''He's my drill sergeant. I'm supposed to obey him.''

How do you feel now?, the prosecutor, Capt. Michael Formichelli, asked Ms. Paulsen, who left the Army because of the problem with her hip.

Then he walked briskly out of the courtroom and into the gray, rainy Ozark morning, his posture ramrod straight, his eyes front, his mouth shut.

He looked like the image on a recruiting poster, but to the armed forces, the 29-year-old career soldier is now an embarrassment, as it continues investigating accusations involving drill instructors here and at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, where at least one captain has also been charged.

Investigators have also fanned out to the Army's 17 other training posts across the country to determine how widespread the problem of sexual abuse and harassment of recruits is. An Army telephone line set up to handle abuse complaints has been flooded with calls in recent days.

In Maryland, the abuse charges include rape and threats of violence to keep the recruits quiet. The charges here so far are less serious. Two other sergeants are scheduled to be tried here next month for violations similar to Sergeant Taylor's, and seven more sergeants have been suspended, pending an investigation.

Angelia Shirley, 19, sat in the front row of the courtroom on this post, 135 miles southwest of St. Louis. Ms. Shirley had been an Army trainee when she fell in love with the divorced Sergeant Taylor, and they lived together off post, she said in an interview. They even talked of marriage, she said.

Ms. Shirley, who also left the Army because of medical problems, said that their relationship was completely consensual, but that she became angry and was willing to cooperate when she found out he had cheated on her with other recruits.

''I'm not satisfied with the sentence,'' she said. ''It's not enough time for what he did to me and the others. We are people, not just objects.''

She said that she knew she and the sergeant were violating military rules, and that there were strict rules against fraternization.

''I was lonely and vulnerable, and he was lonely and vulnerable, too,'' she said. ''But I knew it was wrong. You're not here to find a boyfriend or a husband. You're here to learn how to protect yourself and your country.''

But it was Ms. Paulsen's testimony today that opened a window onto a part of Army life that military officials and old soldiers say is strictly and clearly forbidden.

''The rules can't be any clearer,'' said Louis W. Prentiss, Jr., a retired commander of Fort Leonard Wood. ''There is a no fraternization rule. The drill sergeants have to walk a straight, stiff line. He is the embodiment of power. It absolutely cannot be a confused relationship.''